Hey, I have a second game I run aside from Deadlands.
So, I want to get into Call of Cthulhu.
The new edition seems like a good place to start.
What supplements should I get from all the other editions, being primarily a fluff man.
What are the ones to avoid?
I especially am interested in campaigns and adventures.
As one who is also planning to run CoC in the near future, I would be interested in responses in this thread. Particularly any modules/campaigns that offer a hex-crawl or sandbox style would be cool.
The Lovecraft Country books, especially the first three: Arkham Unveiled, Kingsport, Return to Dunwich... are the closest to sandbox-style sourcebooks that I know of.
https://rpggeek.com/rpgseries/1300/lovecraft-country-series
The best campaign is probably still Masks of Nyarlathotep.
People have been going on of late about Orient Express but I never thought it was in the top tier, except for having lots of fancy handouts and such.
The Lovecraft Country stuff makes for pretty excellent sandbox play, especially the Arkham book. Some of the lines best adventures are set in Arkham, and it can be a lot of fun following the community through the years. And Arkham University makes for a good source of replacement PCs with esoteric interests.
As far as campaigns go, Masks of Nyarlathotep has a great rep, but in practice can be very arbitrarily deadly, and this is true of all of the early campaigns in my experience, though this isn't necessarily a total non selling point. Tatters of the King is a much more narratively based campaign (think an "adventure path" type thing), which is not normally to my taste for Call of Cthulhu, but in this case I have to say it is an excellent campaign and not likely to be lethal for PCs as long as the players are being fairly smart.
Semi-Ninja'd! Same talking points, sleight divergence of opinion!
Edit: A final note, CoC adventures run the gamut from sandboxes to railroads, often in the same collection of adventures. Most of the campaigns function well weaved into an ongoing sandbox style setting, but pulling this off as a GM can be something of an acquired art. What are you looking to avoid? Do you have a premise in mind? A premise can be very useful in a horror campaign, whether it be a loose confederate of Arkham University intellectuals or a Private Detective Agency who starts specializing in uncanny cases.
One of my favorite non-Mythos campaigns is shorter one, Our Ladies Of Sorrow by Miskatonic River Press. It's based on the same source as Dario Argento's 'Three Mothers' trilogy: Susperia, Inferno, and Mother of Tears.
I have Dreamlands and liked it.
For a really weird setting look up End Times by Dr. Michael C. LaBossiere. I playtested that wayyyyyyy back and was really interesting setting once you got through the introductory adventures. Essentially the stars came right and all heck broke loose as the monsters came crawling out of the woodwork. Some flee to Mars and form a desperate colony there. Which is where the campaign is set.
Silent Legions by Sine Nomine. It's specifically designed for sandbox vs. cults.
Also, another enthusiastic vote for End Times.
There are number of good supplements/scenario books about and as 7e is backwards compatible everything is good to go.
The new Cults of Chaos (see Chaosium's website) is offering a multipart campaign for free set around Miskatonic University that will fit right in with the Akham area books mnetioned above. Part 5 has just been released with 6 coming on the 15th September. There's also an area at the Chaosium site offering freely downloadable scenarios.
I like Edge of Darkness (from the 6e rulebook) as a good intro as an alternative to The Haunting from the 7e quickstart. Another good (non-Mythos) scenario is The Haunted House from Curse of Cthulhu but that takes several sessions to run due to the ins and outs of the story.
Supplements that deal with foreign cities are always good as they don't involve local knowledge making them more unsettling. Cubicle 7's Cthulhu Britannica series are good for the UK (London (boxed set), Shadows over Scotland, Avalon and Folklore) with the London set having a great campaign in Curse of Nineveh.
I'd recommend Golden Goblin's Tales of the Crescent City for a supplement covering New Orleans. GG do a lot of good stuff relating to CoC.
Modern supplements i.e. The Things We Leave Behind (just released) have some great scenarios that crawl with horror.
I GMed End Times and had alot of fun with it , as did the players.
LaBossiere's work on Strange Aeons has some interesting adventures too.
Quote from: Manzanaro;917589The Lovecraft Country stuff makes for pretty excellent sandbox play, especially the Arkham book. Some of the lines best adventures are set in Arkham, and it can be a lot of fun following the community through the years. And Arkham University makes for a good source of replacement PCs with esoteric interests.
This is my favorite group of modules. Set everything in a creepy New England atmosphere in Lovecraft Country and you're good to go. :D
For 7E directly, the best material currently out there is the Cthulhu Britannica stuff put out by Cubicle 7. The London box set and World War Cthulhu lines are very professionally polished and fully engaging throughout. Depending on the style of play you are after, the Pulp Cthulhu book due to be published looks to be a lot of fun too. The Orient Express Campaign is impressive too, but very large and, to be honest, is a bit overwhelming to set up.
The backwards compatibility for older editions is do-able, and there is appendix-based conversion notes in several publications to assist with this this too. For the most part it amounts to multiplying the core stats by 5% (and ignoring a few of the newer, more peripheral rules, I have to say). But if we want to go back, then obviously Masks of Nyarlathotep is a classic and for me, so is Beyond The Mountains of Madness. I also have a soft spot for the out-of-print, and very campy Blood Brothers books, but that may just be me, and Modiphius have made a good fist of delivering Achtung Cthulhu! if that's your bag too.
In terms of my appreciation of style and tone, though, the grittier Delta Green RPG system holds a candle for running things like True Detective or other campaigns in a more thriller-styled way. The mechanics are less forgiving, with less bells and whistles over aspects like Luck points and the like.
Actually, I have noted that the new 7E mechanics now only really differ from the old Marvel Supers FACERIP system insofar that you roll low on percentile dice rather than high. In a functional sense the use of Luck points, and upfront scales of success are functionally very similar. I'm not sure what this says about it's functionality as a horror system as opposed to comic strip action - although there is the sanity system to keep it in check I guess.
Creature Compendium, because "Monster Manual + Gods" will eventually be useful.
The House of R'lyeh is good because it continues on from where 5 Lovecraft stories ended, and it even offers interconnections for converting all 5 into grand campaign. Basically an opportunity for that Lovecraft fan to go squee as they continue play from roughly where the author left off.
It's really hard to go wrong anywhere as most products are solid — the big issue is time investment for the table. So certain grand campaigns can stall or be overwhelmed if your group is irregular or novice. So, as cool as Beyond the Mountains of Madness is, not the easiest start (it is traveling to Antarctica, so...).
Quote from: Opaopajr;917691The House of R'lyeh is good because it continues on from where 5 Lovecraft stories ended, and it even offers interconnections for converting all 5 into grand campaign. Basically an opportunity for that Lovecraft fan to go squee as they continue play from roughly where the author left off.
Actually I second that. Good set of scenarios.
Quote from: TrippyHippy;917688Actually, I have noted that the new 7E mechanics now only really differ from the old Marvel Supers FACERIP system insofar that you roll low on percentile dice rather than high. In a functional sense the use of Luck points, and upfront scales of success are functionally very similar. I'm not sure what this says about it's functionality as a horror system as opposed to comic strip action - although there is the sanity system to keep it in check I guess.
You havent read many comics if you think it cant do horror.
ahem.
Unless they really overhauled CoC then it shouldnt bee too much like MSH.
Hermes Serpent already brought up Curse of Nineveh, one of the newest campaigns available, but I'll second it -- it really is spectacular. (The wonderful London Boxed Set is also well worth your money, but by no means necessary -- but I'll say it's one of the best boxed sets I've bought in recent memory, second only to the recent revision of Horror On The Orient Express.) Cubicle 7 has become my benchmark for quality Cthulhu material, actually -- both World War Cthulhu and World War Cthulhu: Cold War are excellent, with Cold War being a particular favorite of mine.
Also, if you're looking for campaigns, both The Armitage Files and Eternal Lies are for Trail of Cthulhu, and easily converted over to Call. (Somebody's already converted Eternal Lies, and Armitage Files has precious few stats.) Pagan puts out magnificent material -- all of the old Delta Green material is still available and compatible with previous CoC editions and easily converted and outstanding stuff.
Chaosium also released a new adventure collection called Nameless Horrors, and while not a campaign, a few of the adventures in it are real standouts, with one of them being particularly creepy and unnerving.
As a play aid for any Lovecraftian game, I also second whoever brought up Silent Legions.
Honestly, CoC is having a bit of a renaissance right now. It's a great time to be playing.
Mansions of Madness is an older product, but it's fun and has been recently reprinted. There's a by now huge series of Secrets of X location source books, any of which might be useful depending on where you plan to set your game.
I definitely agree that Masks of Nyarlathotep is worth picking up. Its high reputation is deserved. As mentioned earlier, you'll probably have to tone it down a bit if you don't want PCs dropping like flies, however.
Quote from: CTPhipps;917569What supplements should I get from all the other editions, being primarily a fluff man.
Definitely the Lovecraft Country books. Anything you can find from Pagan Publishing. The 1920s Investigator's Handbook. Malleus Monstrorum.
QuoteWhat are the ones to avoid?
The 7th edition core books. ;)
QuoteI especially am interested in campaigns and adventures.
Then, Masks of Nyarlathotep, Beyond the Mountains of Madness, Escape from Innsmouth, Coming Full Circle, Realm of Shadows.
Lots of great responses! Definitely seems like Masks of Nyarlathotep is a sure thing. Many others to check out too.
Forgive my blaspheme, but we're actually looking at running d20 CoC. It's what my players are most familiar with (PF/D&D/yaddayadda) I'm not worried about conversions, shouldn't be too hard...
Has anyone tried the Nocturnum campaign that FFG put out back in the day?
If you are playing D20 CoC I'd suggest getting st least one of the dual-stat adventure supplements so that you can see how the conversion works. While 7e to earlier Chaosium D100-based editions is easy I'm not so sure that converting between completely different systems is going to be easy or work well.
Arkham
Dunwich
Kingsport
Dreamlands
Tatters of the King (campaign)
Quote from: Robyo;917757Lots of great responses! Definitely seems like Masks of Nyarlathotep is a sure thing. Many others to check out too.
Forgive my blaspheme, but we're actually looking at running d20 CoC. It's what my players are most familiar with (PF/D&D/yaddayadda) I'm not worried about conversions, shouldn't be too hard...
Has anyone tried the Nocturnum campaign that FFG put out back in the day?
Supplements dual stated for BRP/D20 Cthulhu:
Arkham
Kingsport
Dunwich
Delta Green
Nocturnum
CoC D20 GM'screen with a adventure, handouts and conversion rules.
I have only skimmed Nocturnum long time ago. It is a classic kind of globe-trotter campaign set in our time and not the 20' or 30' (so there is travelling around the world) with the aim of stopping the end of the world and the unraveling of a great conspiracy against human existence. So not very original. But it seems like a very classic style kind of CoC campaign like "Masks..." and "Shadows of Yog-Sothoth". It does some inventing of new Mythos Threats for the plot of the campaign. So may not be for purists.
I would put in a plug for d20 Call of Cthulhu. It has outstanding GM advice, good art, and a good implimentation of the d20 mechanics. It can be obtained for reasonable prices on Amazon, etc. The GM pack was, and may still be available on DriveThru from WotC.
Quote from: Omega;917702Unless they really overhauled CoC then it shouldnt bee too much like MSH.
They did. It is.
I really like Delta Green but it takes the game in a very different direction. It brings it to modern times and incorporates modern UFO lore and conspiracy theory elements. It's really different from the usual CoC 20s setting. It's much more like X-Files.
Quote from: yosemitemike;917892I really like Delta Green but it takes the game in a very different direction. It brings it to modern times and incorporates modern UFO lore and conspiracy theory elements. It's really different from the usual CoC 20s setting. It's much more like X-Files.
I've purchased Delta Green and that was actually my first and only line of Cthulhu-related products (aside from plushie). Overall, it's very nice but it's become very dated because they set out to be "modern" and they left out elements which were timeless. For example, the opening book really pissed me off by saying "The Cult of Cthulhu no longer exists because the Cult of Cthulhu was stupid and no one would seriously follow a degenerate revelry rights organization like it."
Which, hilariously, is right next to the Illuminati and UFOWatch.
:)
Quote from: CTPhipps;917951I've purchased Delta Green and that was actually my first and only line of Cthulhu-related products (aside from plushie). Overall, it's very nice but it's become very dated because they set out to be "modern" and they left out elements which were timeless. For example, the opening book really pissed me off by saying "The Cult of Cthulhu no longer exists because the Cult of Cthulhu was stupid and no one would seriously follow a degenerate revelry rights organization like it."
Which, hilariously, is right next to the Illuminati and UFOWatch.
It's a bit dated now with its X-Files vibe but Illuminati and UFO theories are still alive and flourishing on the internet. Things have shifted a bit like the greater concern about the surveillance state but a lot of that stuff is still around as much as ever.
The Cult of Cthulhu as presented in the 20s material is very much a Roaring 20s/flapper/Great Gatsby sort of thing. I think that cult would have died out though I would have it around in other forms. I would probably have it in the raver/club scene now. That party subculture doesn't look the same now but it's still very much with us.
Quote from: yosemitemike;918018Which, hilariously, is right next to the Illuminati and UFOWatch.
It's a bit dated now with its X-Files vibe but Illuminati and UFO theories are still alive and flourishing on the internet. Things have shifted a bit like the greater concern about the surveillance state but a lot of that stuff is still around as much as ever.
The Cult of Cthulhu as presented in the 20s material is very much a Roaring 20s/flapper/Great Gatsby sort of thing. I think that cult would have died out though I would have it around in other forms. I would probably have it in the raver/club scene now. That party subculture doesn't look the same now but it's still very much with us.
Yeah, totally disagree. The Cult of Cthulhu would be everywhere. They would be behind evangelists, Prosperity Gospel, the secret spiritual advisors of the government, and there would be books on Cthulhu as a concept in stores.
Then again, I really loved the way it was depicted in
The Apocalypse Codex.
Quote from: CTPhipps;918023Yeah, totally disagree. The Cult of Cthulhu would be everywhere. They would be behind evangelists, Prosperity Gospel, the secret spiritual advisors of the government, and there would be books on Cthulhu as a concept in stores.
Then again, I really loved the way it was depicted in The Apocalypse Codex.
Specifically, the Delta Green rulebook says that the Cult of Cthulhu doesn't exist in its old form -- inbred, debased revelers in swamps is not something that survive to the present day. His cult is now made up of a lot of powerful individuals, worshipping privately or in small groups, but when he's ready to wake up again, then they'll all unify and the Cult of Cthulhu will return in a new form, made up of the cream of society.
So they didn't write out the Cult of Cthulhu permanently, but they did update it. Given DG's focus on Hastur, the Shan, the Mi-Go, and the like, I imagine they were trying to make more use out of underused Mythos entities rather than going back to the well again.
Quote from: CTPhipps;918023Yeah, totally disagree. The Cult of Cthulhu would be everywhere. They would be behind evangelists, Prosperity Gospel, the secret spiritual advisors of the government, and there would be books on Cthulhu as a concept in stores.
Then again, I really loved the way it was depicted in The Apocalypse Codex.
I totally disagree with your total disagreement. There are lots of mythos entities and races besides Cthuhlu. There's no particular reason why Cthulhu should be that ubiquitous. You can do that if you want but there are lots of other mythos entities that could be behind any number of those things. Nyarlathotep springs to mind. There probably are books of Cthulhu. They are probably shelved next to the UFO conspiracy books, the books on the Illuminati, the Hollow Earth books and any number of other things that are actually true in that world but are considered to be crank nonsense by most people. You can probably buy a book on MJ-12 just like you can in the real life except that there really is an MJ-12 conspiracy in the Delta Green world. The problem in Delta Green would not be finding information. With the internet, that's easy. The problem would be sifting through all of the nonsense, misinformation and general internet noise to find the truth.
Quote from: Future Villain Band;918033inbred, debased revelers in swamps is not something that survive to the present day.
You dont travel much do you? Even today, or especially today theres these towns all over the US that are isolated and more than a few hiding dirty little secrets and blood on their hands. Or just places that time forgot. Or any given place that looks like an Amish town. But isnt. And thats without some thing from beyond playing pick-up-sticks with your sanity.
Quote from: Omega;918102Even today, or especially today theres these towns all over the US that are isolated and more than a few hiding dirty little secrets and blood on their hands.
I can attest to that. Our state has two main urban hubs... but lots of little places scattered around with tiny populations and those people are there because they want to be. There's one place up state that's in a mountain valley you can only drive to during part of the year. Why do those folks want to isolate themselves that way unless they're up to something? Worshipping dark gods, guarding some forgotten secret, waiting for something...
I'm also not big on Cthulhu... I mean, it was a bid deal here locally, millions of years ago... but cosmically speaking it's just some dead-but-dreaming schlub on a backwater planet no one cares about. Sure, some kooks listen in on its dreams occasionally and end up eating babies in burned out shacks... but I really can't see an organized, high-level, international conspiracy forming up around the thing... unless, it's three times removed so that the vast majority of members have no clue what sort of crazy stuff their cult is really about, that there are layers and layers of secrets revealed only to the highest level zealots... much like some modern cults I've heard of in Utah and Hollywood.
I don't see the cult dying out... but I don't see it moving into the White House either.
Now the Mi-go... they seem organized, and have human agents to aide them in return for material rewards.
Quote from: Omega;918102You dont travel much do you? Even today, or especially today theres these towns all over the US that are isolated and more than a few hiding dirty little secrets and blood on their hands. Or just places that time forgot. Or any given place that looks like an Amish town. But isnt. And thats without some thing from beyond playing pick-up-sticks with your sanity.
Dude, I live in one of those places. The statement is a near direct quote from the book concerning the cult of Cthulhu, not that there's not places that are off the map. According to the original story, the Cult of Cthulhu is mainly disorganized into scattered groups in very isolated areas across the planet and amongst sailors. The Cult of Cthulhu is as much a victim of roads and missionaries and telephones as it is the fact that sensitive members committed suicide after waves of nightmares in 192x. At least according to DG.
Aside from the Starry Wisdom Cult its never been overly organized. Lots of little clusters of followers and the occasional bigger ones hidden away. Not counting the Mi-Go who seem disinterested in larger organizations and just do their thing out in the boonies.
Quote from: Omega;918140Not counting the Mi-Go who seem disinterested in larger organizations and just do their thing out in the boonies.
It seems like they'd have a harder time staying hidden nowadays though, forcing them to have agents infiltrate higher offices of government.
Well, before you drown yourself in a truckload of CoC books...
Dead Light (http://rlyehreviews.blogspot.fr/2014/10/by-evenings-dead-light.html) : a quite good one-shot adventure. (and check other reviews on that blog. Not that I always agree with the guy, but he always give you good info imho).
Eternal Lies (http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.fr/2013/07/review-eternal-lies-from-pelgrane-press.html) : "Hey! You are stupid! This one is not even for CoC, it's for Trail of Cthulhu!". Well, first, there is an official, free, conversion to CoC (http://site.pelgranepress.com/index.php/eternal-lies-call-of-cthulhu-conversion/). AFAIC this is a very good campaign. Keeps the feel of "classic" campaigns but takes them to a new level in terms of presentation and ease of use for the GM.
Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37 (https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?226774-CoC-So-I-ran-Machine-Tractor-Station-Kharkov-37-at-the-weekend) : an adventure to see how you can take the "classic" CoC adventures in new directions.
Well, the Cthulhu cult is apparently so widespread that the protagonist and a bunch of random people across the globe get murdered by it. They also have an eye on everything which is done with their god even loosely.
Quote from: CTPhipps;918154Well, the Cthulhu cult is apparently so widespread that the protagonist and a bunch of random people across the globe get murdered by it. They also have an eye on everything which is done with their god even loosely.
I can see it as a sort of occult mafia... with lots of low level operatives not having much of the bigger picture. The way organized crime was depicted in The Sopranos... it was everywhere and nowhere, with most members caught up in their own little schemes. That, vs. some James Bond supervillain organization with strict hiearchies, uniforms, and secret bases inside of volcanoes.
Quote from: Omega;918102You dont travel much do you? Even today, or especially today theres these towns all over the US that are isolated and more than a few hiding dirty little secrets and blood on their hands. Or just places that time forgot. Or any given place that looks like an Amish town. But isnt. And thats without some thing from beyond playing pick-up-sticks with your sanity.
Travel? I live there. Mariposa County, California. Population:18,000 for the entire county. Zero incorporated areas. Zero traffic lights. We have 3G and a Subway now. The opening of the Subway was a big local controversy by the way. Proposals to put a traffic light at a highway junction in town have been consistently opposed by locals because traffic lights are too big city. This is a very anti-growth rural area. It's essentially a Shall issue county since it's so conservative and it can take up to half an hour for A sheriff's Deputy to respond to a call because it's so spread out and there are so many undivided or unpaved roads.
Two questions about what scenarios to go with:
Pulp or Purist?
Is the scale individual, local, or cosmic?
If you go with Masks, look for the MON Companion. Masks is thirty years old, and the Companion takes a look at what went wrong that players have found over the years. It also expands the campaign a bit.
As far as modules to avoid, that is a matter of taste, but the two worst written ones are "Five Go Mad in Egypt" and "Mysteries of Hungary." Oddly, both are set in Hungary.
Both are MULAs, Which means that Chaosium abandoned editorial control over the product. Five's author took advantage of the pay by page policy and produced a 150 page opus -
Using twenty point font
And Double spacing.
Yes, the font is to big to read.
But Our Heroes chase a necromancer from London to Budapest for the final showdown.
"Mysteries of Hungary" was written by someone with English as a second language, and the babblefish really wasn't doing its job.
Hungarian is a funny language. The phrase "Is my money with you?" (Von penzem magaVAL?) and "Do you have my money?" (Von penzem magaNAK?) are only one syllable different. A more literal translation of the second question is "Are you a my money having person?" A good editor or grammarian could have fixed a lot of Yoda speak.
I used to be a huge fan of Call of Cthulhu, and all things Chaosium. Last fall I sold off all my stuff (which included probably 95%+ of everything Chaosium had ever published), having decided to trim all my RPGs collection down to something I could fit on a bookshelf or two.
So, that being said, my point is that now when I want to run a Lovecraftian/Mythos style game, all I use are Ken Hite's "Nightmare's of Mine" for general horror advice, and Graham Walmsley's "Stealing Cthulhu" for specific Cthulhu-related ideas.
Part of the problem I have with CoC as a game, is that -so much- is detailed out. Lovecraft created all these weird monsters because he wanted to write gothic horror and weird fiction without the use of ghosts, vampires, and the like. He thought they were all tired and played out. CoC, sadly, grinds the innovation of Lovecraft's weirdness into the dust, making them just as boring as any victorian ghoulie.
Skip all the officially-published stuff, and just make up your own. Who cares what Chaosium said San Francisco is like in the world of the Mythos? Make it your own.
Quote from: Herne's Son;918476Part of the problem I have with CoC as a game, is that -so much- is detailed out. Lovecraft created all these weird monsters because he wanted to write gothic horror and weird fiction without the use of ghosts, vampires, and the like. He thought they were all tired and played out. CoC, sadly, grinds the innovation of Lovecraft's weirdness into the dust, making them just as boring as any victorian ghoulie.
That's the nature of publishing though, making stuff and selling it, raising your cash cow and milking it dry... with people collecting far more than they play. Everything gets explained and codefied to the point where there is no mystery left. The big new monster book Chaosium put out is pretty, and boring as hell, but the fans love it.
I bought a lot of CoC stuff in the early days but I left off on it long ago... just the Lovecraft Country books, an occasional monograph or adventure book now and then. Most of the games I've run haven't had any big deal Mythos entities at all... I much favor cultists and the evils that men do.
I almost never run written adventures for any games I run. But when running Call of Cthulhu I use published material almost exclusively. Part of the reason for this is the general high quality of Chaosium's published material. Another part is that I find CoC does not tend to be a game that works well when run improvisationally. Also, stuff like newspaper clippings, mysterious maps, and excerpts from horrific tomes add a lot to the game, and I'm not big on making that stuff myself.
Quote from: Manzanaro;917589As far as campaigns go, Masks of Nyarlathotep has a great rep, but in practice can be very arbitrarily deadly,
You say this as though it's a bad thing.
Quote from: RPGPundit;918939You say this as though it's a bad thing.
Well, I do go on to say that that's not necessarily a point against it. But it is pretty damn easy to die without ever even leaving New York, if you run it purely as written. That Ju Ju cult is a real beast.
The basic few you really want are bestiaries, Dreamlands and Cthulhu by Gaslight if you want to run the 1890s scenarios, or Delta Green if you want to run the 90's X - Files Cthulhu style.
Once your wallet is done weeping for these purchases, check out Trail of Cthulhu publications - I highly recommend their adventures as good self - contained one shots. Bookhounds of London with the Guide are definitely a must, as are Dreamhounds of Paris for more atypical adventures in Lovecraft's realms.
Cthulhu by Gaslight is an interesting time period but it's kind of tough on players even by Call of Cthulhu standards. A lot of stuff just isn't available in that era. Even a lot of stuff that is common in the 20s era is either newly invented or not available depending on the exact year.
Quote from: yosemitemike;919257Cthulhu by Gaslight is an interesting time period but it's kind of tough on players even by Call of Cthulhu standards. A lot of stuff just isn't available in that era. Even a lot of stuff that is common in the 20s era is either newly invented or not available depending on the exact year.
True there are no tommy guns but dynamite is available and so are machine guns (albeit a bit heavy to tote around) and vehicles (steam cars) and the telegraph for communication.
Quote from: Hermes Serpent;919261True there are no tommy guns but dynamite is available and so are machine guns (albeit a bit heavy to tote around) and vehicles (steam cars) and the telegraph for communication.
It's worth it if only for being one of the few periods in history where you could openly proclaim yourself an occultist and mess about with the Golden Dawn and Theosophists and that sort of thing. You could probably be legit paid for being a Call of Cthulhu investigator.
Quote from: Hermes Serpent;919261True there are no tommy guns but dynamite is available and so are machine guns (albeit a bit heavy to tote around) and vehicles (steam cars) and the telegraph for communication.
It's more than just that. Finger printing is new if it has been invented at all. Crime labs are non-existent. Cars are rarities. They exist but they are very uncommon and, even if one is available, go only a few miles an hour. Regulation delayed car development in Britain until the 20th century. Electric lights with dry cell batteries are new or not invented yet. The D-cell flashlight doesn't exist. Machine guns exist but they are heavy, cumbersome and highly impractical. A Maxim gun is not something investigators can be toting around. There as telephone service in the UK at the time but few people had phones and only in a few areas. There are just a lot of convenient, little things that are not available yet at that time. The guns are not really the main thing since they are often useless in CoC anyway.
It's an interesting era and I like the atmosphere of it but it can make things hard on investigators. That doesn't mean anything is wrong with it. It all depends on what sort of game you want. Things become easier in the modern era with cell phone, the internet and so on but that doesn't make that are somehow better.
Quote from: RPGPundit;918939You say this as though it's a bad thing.
Actually it is, in respect of it being a key design factor in the development of
Delta Green. Introducing new characters during Masks became a real immersion-breaking chore. (The initial characters all know each other through a third-party connection that goes away).
In
Delta Green (First Edition) you were all part of a wider underground conspiracy, so all the new character would require is to know the secret handshake.
Delta Green (Second Edition) is just rolling out now (
like in the past couple of months (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcdream/delta-green-the-role-playing-game)), and is spectacular. It uses a variant theme of the above to reflect the post 9-11 world.
The other issue that I have seen reported, is that
Masks now feels very old-school, very railroady, not necessarily what modern players are looking for.
It's also crazy long...and yet short compared to
Mountains, AFAIK. :)
I have the core book (5.6), Dreamlands, the creature book (Martian tripods!), Delta Green, and Delta Green Countdown. (and d20 CoC, but everyone looks at me funny when I try to run that)
I am fan of CoC as any other guy. So far I have only enjoyed small scenarios (1-3 sessions) and I like like them very much. I would recommend good-old Mansions of Madness.
Quote from: remial;921103I have the core book (5.6), Dreamlands, the creature book (Martian tripods!), Delta Green, and Delta Green Countdown. (and d20 CoC, but everyone looks at me funny when I try to run that)
D20 CoC was actually fantastic.